Museums, Contemporary Ethnography and the Representation of Afro-Descendants

Based on Gregory Bateson's famous metalogue format, this article is a conversation on how contemporary cultural creators question ethnographic authority from within their work of creating archives that contain the best of their peoples' traditions, within an atmosphere saturated by television signals and digital messages, such as that which surrounded the temporary exhibition called Wakes and Living Saints among Black, Afro-Colombian, Maroon and Caribbean Islanders Communities. Such a display of transcendental symbols is problematic due to its capacity to either sublimate or trivialize them. Adapted from the source document.